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Satay is a flavor more common in Thai restaurants in America than in Thailand. We are pleased to offer this authentic, all-natural satay spice recipe for prawns. We recommend that you use the largest prawns available, and fry them in a skillet or what we used (see pictures below) is a George Foreman Grill which is remarkably useful for this dish. You can also use chicken for this recipe (simply substitute chicken for prawns, and put the chicken meat on bamboo skewers). Also see our recipes for pork satay and chicken satay.

Ingredients For Cucumber Salad

Method for Thai Prawn Satay with Cucumber Salad

METHOD FOR PREPARATION OF PRAWNS

In a medium bowl, mix the prawns with all marinade ingredients. Marinate for 30 minutes. Cook the prawns at medium heat for just a few minutes until they turn pink. Do not overcook or they will taste rubbery.

METHOD FOR PREPARATION OF SATAY SAUCE

Pound the peanuts in a mortar and pestle. In a medium saucepan, boil the coconut milk. Add satay mix, stir well and reduce heat. Add the salt, crushed peanuts, sugar and sesame seeds. Stir over medium heat for a few minutes, then remove from heat.

METHOD FOR PREPARATION OF CUCUMBER SALAD

Heat the vinegar, salt and sugar in a small saucepan over low heat until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat, set aside until cool. Transfer vinegar into a small serving bowl. Add shallots, cucumber and chiles. Now it's ready to serve.

Serve prawns with spring onion or other fresh seasonal vegetable. The bowl of cucumber salad and satay sauce on the side. We like to serve this dish with a fresh bowl of steamed jasmine rice, and spoon some of the satay sauce over the rice.

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Comments (1)

Jim Ball

I've uploaded a series of photos that detail my misadventure with cooking Prawn Satay on the Satay Grill. I hope you learn from my mistakes. The following is a more complete narrative than the photo captions allow. Note, I had problems getting comments to attach to the photos and there is no edit/delete feature. Photos are also not in sequence, so please refer to the descriptions. photo 1: (shrimp marinating in a bowl) I had a couple of pounds of 60-80 count shrimp in the freezer that I decided to use instead of the jumbo shrimp recommended in the recipe. This turned out to be a bad idea. More on this later... Photo 2: (pan of shrimp on skewers) The shrimp do look nice on the skewers & the marinade from the importfood.com recipe is great! I deviated from the recipe here by deciding to try skewering the shrimp and grilling them. I've grilled shrimp this way for years, but on a gas grill. Charcoal is a different thing! Photo 3: (Satay Grill full of briquettes Mistake #2: Too much charcoal. I didn't get enough charcoal on my first attempt with the grill a few days ago, so I filled my charcoal starter chimney all the way to the top this time. After dumping the coals in the grill and spreading them out, I discovered that I had charcoal almost touching the grill. (sigh) Out come the long-handle tongs and remove charcoal until there is only a single layer of briquettes. FYI: That is about 30 avg. size briquettes. Photo 4: (Charcoal bag next to Satay Grill) Mistake #3: All charcoal is not alike! When switching brands, test first. I know this! I've wrote reviews in past years on charcoal products for an online BBQ magazine. I had my head somewhere it doesn't belong and forgot this important fact. The first time I used the Satay Grill, I used a store-brand charcoal from 'The' big box store. It was old and it burned fast without putting out a lot of heat. This time I used a new bag of Rancher hardwood charcoal. It's slow to get started but it burns hotter'n hell and lasts quite a while.Photo 5: (five skewers of shrimp). I managed to get the last few skewers cooked without burning the shrimp....too much. :-P Photo 6: (showing ashed-over briquettes) 45 minutes after I was finished grilling the shrimp, there was still fierce heat coming off the briquettes, even as ashed over as they were. I placed a 3/4" piece of plywood between my Satay Grill and the plastic top of my folding table before I started. The heat was fierce enough to produce black scorch marks on the plywood! These briquettes were still too hot for the 2-second rule. For those who do not know, the 2-second rule states that if you cannot hold your hand for two seconds just above the cooking surface, then your grill is too hot. I forgot this rule tonight. :-( I mentioned that using the 60-80 count shrimp was a mistake. The small size of the shrimp combined with the very hot fire resulted in the shrimp almost flash cooking! I had a difficult time keeping the skewers turned without burning the shrimp. The smallest shrimp did burn almost as soon as they touched the grill. Despite everything, the shrimp (at least the ones not completely burned) were delicious! I will definitely repeat the recipe, but next time I will use a 16-20 count shrimp and make certain the charcoal is at the proper temperature! :-D